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Write an Indie Hackers post

An Indie Hackers post reaches other founders and makers, so it fits products sold to them. In ScottPlusPlus's study of 500 front-page posts, none of the 50 most popular titles were announcements, while 20% of the least popular were. Indie Hackers retired its Milestones and Groups features in 2026, so updates now go out as ordinary posts.

Evidence C, limited evidenceSituational

Stage
Stage 2. Users, no retention signalDo the first users get value, and do they come back?
Category
Launches
Time
2 to 3 hoursAwiser's estimate of the active work
Cash
No cash
Live calls
No live calls
First result
Within days
Risk
LowA post nobody reads costs a few hours; promotional posting can cost standing in the community.
Needs
A real story with numbers or lessons, not an announcementTime to answer every comment yourself

When does it fit?

  • Your buyers are founders or indie makers, the people who read Indie Hackers: the founder of a tool for founders calls a single post the most consistent traffic source.[7]
  • You have a story with takeaways and some proof, not just a product to show.[7]
  • You can answer every comment yourself.[6]

When should you skip it?

  • Your customers are not founders: one maker got 36% of product traffic from Indie Hackers but doubts it brought most registered users.[6]
  • The post is an announcement: in ScottPlusPlus's study, 20% of the least popular titles were announcements and none of the 50 most popular were.[5]
  • The plan relies on Milestones or Groups: Indie Hackers retired both in 2026.[1][2]

How do you run it?

  1. Pick one story

    A decision, a failure or a result with numbers. Write what you did, what happened and what you learned; the product appears as context.

  2. Write a specific title

    Say what happened, with a number if you have one. Titles that announce a launch did worst in the one study of front-page posts.

  3. Show proof

    A screenshot of a dashboard, a chart or a real message makes the story checkable.

  4. Submit it as a post

    Use Submit a Post. The Milestones and Groups sections are gone; a "Show IH:" prefix is only a habit some members keep.

  5. Answer every comment

    Reply to each comment yourself, and take promising conversations to email or another channel you both use.

  6. Space your posts

    Post again when you have a new story, not on a schedule. One founder recommends every two to three weeks.

What usually happens?

  • Specific titles stand out: in ScottPlusPlus's study of 500 front-page Indie Hackers posts, 66% of the 50 most popular titles contained a number.[5]
  • A presence builds slowly: Gal Dayan reports 70+ points and 16 comments after 3 months of taking part.[8]

Who has done it, and what happened?

Each case is one team's own report: what happened to them, not a typical result.

  • Alexander Chen, founder of 1000 Pound Club2023, Mixed result

    Wrote three posts about launching the product, including a failed Hacker News launch, and answered every comment.

    Alexander Chen reports that 36% of the product's traffic came from Indie Hackers, its largest single source.[6]

    Chen doubts the visits became registered users: Indie Hackers readers were not the target audience.

  • CastielVi, maker of wheretheytalk2025, Positive result

    Soft-launched a waitlist for a tool aimed at founders and wrote one Indie Hackers post telling the story, alongside replies on Reddit.

    CastielVi reports about 200 waitlist signups, with the Indie Hackers post as the most consistent source of traffic.[7]

    Waitlist signups, not users, and no breakdown of signups by channel.

What does the evidence say against it?

  • Posts with no takeaway, or cross-posted without context, flop, one founder reports.[7]
  • No data ties Indie Hackers posts to signups: the one study measures popularity, not business results.

How do you read the result?

What to count
Visits and signups from indiehackers.com, and the conversations a post starts
When to read it
One week after posting
How to decide
Keep posting there only if the visitors look like your buyers: Alexander Chen's 36% share of traffic did not turn into most of the product's signups.[6]

What goes wrong?

  • Self-promotion is easy to spot there, and frequent promotional posts lose readers.[8]
  • Spam and auto-responders break the Indie Hackers terms.[3]
  • Counting direct messages as the result does not fit the platform: in-platform messaging could not be confirmed, and members have long been told to use email or Twitter.[4]

How was it graded?

Evidence
C. Limited evidenceOne small popularity study and three self-reported cases. None measures signups as the outcome, and the cases disagree on whether the visits convert.
Verdict
SituationalA good use of a few hours for a product sold to founders, with a story worth telling. Little reason to expect buyers when your customers are not founders.

How the grades and verdicts are decided

Sources

  1. 1
    Milestones no longer exists (opens in a new tab)Indie Hackers. Undated. Platform rules.
    Milestones no longer exists.
    Indie Hackers retired this feature in 2026, and it's not coming back.
    Read on October 20, 2026.
  2. 2
    Groups no longer exists (opens in a new tab)Indie Hackers. Undated. Platform rules.
    Groups no longer exists.
    Read on October 20, 2026.
  3. 3
    Indie Hackers Terms of Service (opens in a new tab)Indie Hackers. Undated. Platform rules.
    Runs Maillist, Listserv, any form of auto-responder or "spam" on the Services
    Read on October 20, 2026.
  4. 4
    What's the best way to message IH Members? (opens in a new tab)Indie Hackers. February 5, 2020. Analysis.
    DM is somewhere on the roadmap, for now emailing or DMing on Twitter if they have their info available.
    Read on October 20, 2026.
  5. 5
    How to go Viral on Indie Hackers: a study of 500 posts (opens in a new tab)Indie Hackers, ScottPlusPlus. September 5, 2024. Study.
    20% of the bottom-50 titles were announcements. ZERO% of the top-50 were announcements.
    I pulled 500 articles from the front page of indiehackers.com throughout the year (thanks Wayback Machine!).
    66% of the top-50 post titles contain a number.
    Read on October 20, 2026.
  6. 6
    Results from launching on Indie Hackers (opens in a new tab)Indie Hackers, Alexander Chen. August 25, 2023. Founder report.
    Also, I responded to every comment, which I assume helped the posts grow.
    36% of traffic to my product has now come from Indie Hackers. This is by far the single largest source of traffic.
    Although Indie Hackers is the largest source of page visits, I don't think it's the largest source of registered users.
    Read on October 20, 2026.
  7. 7
    200 waitlist signups in 10 days: here's what worked (and what didn't) (opens in a new tab)Indie Hackers, CastielVi. May 21, 2025. Founder report.
    1 IndieHackers post → most consistent source of traffic
    Transparent storytelling and light proof (not just "built this!")
    Cross-posting without context felt spammy Posts without real takeaways flopped
    ~200 signups to the waitlist
    Read on October 20, 2026.
  8. 8
    3 months in: what growing on Indie Hackers actually looks like (opens in a new tab)Indie Hackers, Gal Dayan. June 25, 2026. Founder report.
    Been hanging out here for 3 months now. Started with zero followers, zero credibility. Now at 70+ points and 16 comments across genuine posts.
    The community is crowded and smart - they can smell the self-promo from a mile away.
    One post every 2-3 weeks. Not constant noise.
    Read on October 20, 2026.

Sources last checked on October 20, 2026. First published on October 20, 2026.

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